


Acquaintances with the food platter

by xyzan21



Series: Merlin, the servant's protector [1]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Attempted Rape/Non-Con, BAMF Merlin (Merlin), Competent!Merlin, Merlin swoops in and is like hell no, Protective Merlin, nothing happens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:14:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24492592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xyzan21/pseuds/xyzan21
Summary: Merlin protects one of his fellow servants from a visiting Lord.
Series: Merlin, the servant's protector [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1769374
Comments: 12
Kudos: 384





	Acquaintances with the food platter

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Merlin the Big Brother](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19271062) by [Fire_and_Roses](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fire_and_Roses/pseuds/Fire_and_Roses). 



“Merlin!” Sina hissed. She was standing in a shadowy corner trying to get his attention without disrupting the ongoing feast.

Merlin was standing a few paces behind Arthur, a jug of wine in hand. He glanced at her, then at the nobles. After determining that he wasn’t needed at the moment he made his way over to her as inconspicuously as he could manage.

“Sina? What’s wrong?” he whispered after noticing how much she was shaking. 

“One of the visiting noble men said he was feeling too ill to attend the feast,” she began.

“Yes, I remember. Lord Balen. Arthur wasn’t too sad about it. What about him?”

“He,” she took a deep breath, “he had Andret attended him and Andret hasn’t returned yet. He was supposed to help out in the kitchen. You know Andret, he is never late. We are worried. The Lord doesn’t have the best reputation. You said to come to you if we need help.”

Merlin nodded: “Alright, where is the Lord staying?”

“In the east wing. The room right in the back.”

Merlin pressed the jug into her hands. “I’ll take care of it but you need to take over for me for a bit. Can’t have the nobles pouring their own wine, now can we.” He gave her a grim smile at the end.

Sina answered it with a relieved nod and went to take her place behind Arthur.

Merlin slipped out of the room unnoticed, mostly. Only Arthur sent him a confused look but Merlin just shook his head nearly imperceptibly.

When he reached the door of Balen’s room he heard muffled talking.

He knocked on the door, he did know how to, contrary to what Arthur believed. 

The talking stopped abruptly.

“What is it?” came the annoyed voice of the Lord. “I am unwell and wish to be left alone.”

Merlin rolled his eyes, yeah right. In his politest voice he answered: “The King has sent me to bring you some food. Even if you might not want anything now, we don’t want such an honoured guest to starve.”

He quickly magicked up a platter of food, for appearances sake. Also, it might be fun to smash it in the Lord’s face.

The sound of shuffling came from the other side of the room, a stifled yelp and then the door opened slightly. Balen was looking him up and down, scrunching his nose slightly in displeasure. But there was a hungry gleam in his eyes that Merlin did not like one bit.

Balen opened the door wider and gestured him in. Merlin set the platter down on the table, sending tendrils of his magic out to locate Andret. There! He was stuffed into the cupboard. Bound up and gagged by the feel of it.

Merlin made his way over to the cupboard while the Lord was busy inspecting the food. He opened the doors and looked down at a scared Andret, who’s eyes became wide with hope upon seeing him.

“Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing, boy?!” the Lord exclaimed.

Merlin untied Andret, paying no attention to the fuming Lord behind him. Then he helped Andret out of the cupboard and guided him to the door. “Go to Gaius,” he instructed. “Let him look you over. And don’t worry about the rest of your duties tonight. I’ll make sure they’re covered.”

With a quick nod Andret fled down the hallway. Merlin felt the air shift behind him and dodged the apple Balen threw at him. Well that wasn’t very nice. 

Merlin turned to face him, frowning.

“Do you know what you just did?! Idiot boy!”

“I just prevented an innocent boy from being sexually abused. I’m quite happy with that.”

The Lord was seething. “How dare you! How dare you address me like that! I will tell the King and he will have you executed.”

“Hm. Funny you should say that.”

The Lord faltered for a second at Merlin’s casual tone before he went back to sneering. “How come?”

“Well, to start with I’m his manservant and have been for several years now. And second of all, how do you think he’s going to react when you tell him _why_ I had to rescue a servant from your chambers? Or that you lied to him about being ill.”

“He would never believe a servant over nobility.”

Merlin shrugged. “He’s different than Uther. He actually _listens_ to more than one side before he passes sentence.”

The Lord roared in anger and charged him.

Which was exactly what he was waiting for.

Merlin suppressed an eyeroll. He was glad he had put a temporary silencing and locking spell on the room. This man was going to be a screamer.

He dodged Balen’s swings easily. Merlin brought his fist up in an uppercut. He didn’t particularly like hurting people but he always felt a sick sense of satisfaction beating the shit out of the people who hurt the other servants.

After a few more rounds of Balen trying to land a punch and Merlin blocking them easily while retaliating, Merlin slammed his opponent against a wall.

“Are you done now?” he growled. “Cause I can go on but you look like you’re about to faint.”

Balen tried to swing at him again. Apparently, he wasn’t done. Merlin slammed him into the wall again. The Lord crumpled forward. Merlin stepped out of the way and he slammed into the floor. He kicked the Lord’s prone form for good measure. Maybe some broken ribs would do him some good.

Well, that probably wouldn’t do much. Merlin decided a curse would be far more effective. Broken ribs would heal.

If Balen ever even so much as thought of abusing somebody, he would experience excruciating pain, cramps that made his entire body useless and migraines so terrible that he would be begging for someone to _just kill him already_. And maybe he’d cough up some toads.

Merlin was quite fond of that one. It brought back the great memory of the Witchfinder suffering.

Merlin stepped over the Lord’s unconscious body, grabbed some food from the platter (he had worked up quite an appetite while fighting Balen) and went to walk out the door.

He hesitated, turned back around and picked the platter off the table. He walked back to the Lord and kicked him until he rolled onto his back. Then he stretched out his arms and let the platter fall right on the Lord’s face. He was right. It was indeed very satisfying.

Merlin turned again and exited the room, removing the spells on his way down the deserted corridor. He needed to get back to serving wine. 

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah so this was inspired by Merlin the Big Brother. I really liked the idea of Merlin standing up for his fellow servants. And I decided I wanted to write some stories with that premise.   
> This is the first instalment of a collection of works where Merlin protects other.


End file.
